B u l k P l an t s
Russell: You highlighted one key area and that is to proactively
shape regulatory policy. The second key one is that we've seen
tremendous change in the landscape in our industry in the last
several years and ILTA wants to make sure that we explore those
new markets and make ourselves available and relevant to other
operators that may be moving crude from the midcontinent to
the East Coast. And we also want to make sure we include bulk
transporters and can speak for them as well as the Northeast shale
production. There are an awful lot of companies that have been
more traditional that have expanded their roles in operations that
we want to make sure we expand our services so we can address
their needs. And I think the last area is that I believe ILTA has
done a great job in terms of providing services to our members
and I think one of our focuses this year will be to enhance our own
marketing of that so we can both engage existing members to be
more involved in the many offerings and activities we have as well
as encouraging new members into the organization. I think there
is a great history of leadership within the ILTA staff where they
provide far more than just running an industry association.
FON: As you touched on earlier, the natural gas side is an important part of your operations. And in the industry we are seeing
natural gas play out on the motor fuel side with Class 8 trucks
and then into third-party sales to residential and commercial
customers. Would you mind talking a bit about what you see
with natural gas?
Russell: It's a great question and a great issue. Certainly
on the East Coast there's been a lot of activity in the last few
years with the Marsalis find and the reserve and abundance
are causing people to be more creative. The Northeast has
some of the most densely populated areas in the country,
but it also has some fairly remote areas, which cannot be
easily reached by pipeline and it will be a long, long time
before the economics would justify that out to some of those
less populated areas. So from the standpoint of distributed
fuels market, it is something that we have tried to listen to
our customers and there are some opportunities there in
terms of compressed natural gas that seem to make sense. I
think we'll see that continue to grow. There are some baseline infrastructure needs there, but I think it's a market that
will continue to grow. l F O N
www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | April 2013
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